Kennedy Center Open House filled with performances and activities

The Kennedy Center Open House took place Saturday, May 27, with free activities available for attendees.  The all-day celebration had inside, and outside, the performances. The event which ran from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. had something for everyone.  Some of the performances included the interactive hip-hop show for young audiences “All The Way Live!,” a National Symphony Orchestra instrument “petting zoo,” “Boogie Woogie Piano Man” Daryl Davis with a tribute to Chuck Berry, D.C. Bluegrass Union and Archie Edwards Blues Foundation jam sessions.

There was also the  Washington National Opera “costume trunk,” storyteller Polarbear with Mouth Open, Story Jump Out and more than 300 singers for the National memorial Day Choral Festival and dance from the Washington Ballet, vertical pioneers Bandaloop and street movers Flexn.

D.C.’s contemporary ensemble Company E gave one of the most moving performance of the evening as they performed (IN) Security: Or Jack and Nikki Do the Cold War Tango, which explored the tensions between President John F. Kennedy and . The immersive performance simultaneously took place on the North and South Millenium Stages and throughout the Grand Foyers. The South stage explorwed the Soviet viewpoint and the Noprth the U.S.  In between laid Berlin, Cuba and the race for space and the battleground between these two great powers. The performance ended with the funeral procession for Kennedy after his assassination, complete with a horse with an emply slad with boots draped backwords. It was a timely performance as the Kennedy Center celebrates the centennial of JFK.

On Monday, May 29 ” JFK Centennial Celebration”  A special Memorial Day performance
marking JFK’s  100th birthday will take place at the Kennedy Center. The event starts at 4 and a special evening of readings, performances, and rare video footage featuries a star-studded roster of talent including  Tony® and Golden Globe®–winning actor and producer Brian Dennehy, internationally renowned soprano and Kennedy Center Artistic Advisor at Large Renée Fleming, Tony®-winning Hamilton star Christopher Jackson, Golden Globe® winner Martin Sheen and many more.